New Books

What is it with "young adult" books that is so appealing? It's been kind of frigid outside so we've been inside a lot and I can't stop reading "The Mortal Instruments" series by Cassandra Clare. CAN'T STOP!
I can't put my finger on what makes it so intriguing but it was so easy for me to get caught up.
I had to take a break from Game of Thrones for a bit. I like them but am having a hard tiem sticking with it. I blame the damn tiny font fantasy novels are printed it. I'm about half way through the third one and while there might have been a little lull in there it isn't to the extent that there was with New Moon. (Yeah I read it. Not great but they got me through boredom.)

I've read that a lot of younger fans were crazy upset over how different the movie is from the book but so much happens and setting change so much in the book that it really would have been impossible.  I like that the characters are developed just enough to feel for them and know that there could be more to come but not so much that the whole thing is predictable. The last oen is set to be released in May so I obviously need ot be caught up before then.

Read it now. It'll be fun.

What Do We Have

This may come as a surprise but there is something that hold my heart as much as the Rockies. It is art. I don't always understand understand it or like it but someone has put everything into it.
 Paintings, pencil sketches, sculpture, music, poetry, all forms. It is how we tell our history, relay our emotions and touch the hearts of countless strangers. The severe cuts that have been made to arts funding in public schools breaks my heart. I will never understand how a group of people came to decide that music and art are less important than math. Art creates connections and confidence that children cannot get anywhere else.
What do we have if we lose this important part of our diverse cultures.

A few years ago I went to the Glenbow Museum to see an exhibition on ancient Roman and Greek art. There was a statue of a woman that I will never forget. She was cloaked in a thin veil and the realism was astounding.The veil over her hand was so perfect that you would never have known it wasn't real. I can see it in my head while I type this. It was perfection hundreds of years after it began as a thought in someone's mind.

There are tons of articles online about the importance of art education for everyone not just kids and I encourage everyone to research it.
The real reason all of this popped into my head was because we FINALLY made it to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and the song during the closing credits pulled at me heartstrings. It's Ed Sheeran singing "I See Fire."
There is heart in this and I could listen to it all day. It reminded me how much I appreciate art and the people who fight for it.

 

Good night!!
P.S. Why do men from the UK sound like this?! Swoon.

The Hunger Games Rocked My World Into Bliss

On Thursday, I ditched J with the kids and brand new pup to go see The Hunger Games. I went with 3 friends and a girls I had never met before, she is the sister of one of the friends,and it was awesooooome.
The casting was stellar, the best in many years. Jennifer Lawrence.....I just love her and she is a perfect Katniss. I usually have a hard time sitting through movies with so little music I just didn't this time. With one exception, which was the only part that I didn't like about it, the movie was pretty true to the book, which happens so rarely and it was refreshing to finally see it. When I buy it, I will have to watch it several times, until everyone else is sick of it, then I will watch it in hiding.
It was a fun night. I haven't gone OUT with girls my age, well near my age ;), in a long time and I forgot how nice it is to be carefree and have the possibility to be a little bit  reckless. Yummy dinner, an obscene number of laughs, great movie and I was a happy girl. Well until the dog started crying.

Tomorrow is Miss B's birthday party,  I will try and get some pictures of the excitement!

Alisha

Bits of This and That

1. I am Reading The Sisters Brothers right now. A westernish book is not something I would normally be drawn to but there was something about it that kept calling to me. Everytime I walked passed it or saw it online it whispered something along the lines of, "You will love me. Buy me and ignore your children until you have finished devouring every page of me."
I love it. Patrick deWitt has a gift for getting the reader emotionally vested in a character. Just read it.

                          

2. I've watched Bridesmaids twice in the last two days. It's just so funny. Really I just couldn't help it. Well there is that scene with the speeches at the engagement party that make me feel embarrassed for Annie, but I still just had to watch it.

3. My friend Angela has a little girl named Sadie, her first birthday party was this passed Saturday. It was nice to see everyone I hadn't in a while, Especially our friend Renata and her kids, whom I hadn't met yet, their pretty cute. The girls all had fun and Sadie is so stinkin' cute I can hardly stand it. Since I didn't get any pictures there is one I stole from Angela.

3. It drives me crazy, crazy,crazy that at the age of six, kids at my daughter's school bully each other to the point that the victim doesn't want to go to school. The girls are also starting with the silly little drama that makes friendships hard to hang on to. There is so much pressure from every direction for "perfection" that our poor kids can't even enjoy their recess without feeling like crap. Why is this ok? Oh wait, some douche bag sitting in an office somewhere needs a vacation, which is paid for by people who will buy his product, because he's convinced us it will make part of us perfect.

4. My kids are so cute it makes my heart hurt. They have the craziest imaginations which makes for the cutest moments.

5. Baby B was sick the last week J was home. Really sick, she ate half a cracker and drank two sippy cups of water kind of sick. She also loves Jason more then she loves me especially when she's sick and they end up sleeping in very similar positions. It's so darn adorable and I almost never get a picture of it.

I think that's all for the day. Sorry for #3, it just breaks my heart.

Alisha